dwarven_stout
Well-Known Member
No skimming required!
I was making an ESB with WLP023, and having heard good things about the yeast, planned to save some for another batch. Then I said to myself "Self, why don't we do this the way the Brits do, and get that delicious yeast before it spatters all over my walls and creation?" Thus the $2 top-cropper was born. Next step will be a water-jug Burton Union.
Yes, I could just rinse the yeast from the carboy, and I've done that several times to great success. The reasons I'm trying this are: it's easier both to collect and to separate trub and dead yeast, and it'll be more sanitary overall simply because there is less transferring back and forth of the yeast slurry.
I took a distilled water jug and three feet of tubing. I cut the tubing in half, cut two holes in the jug lid, and forced the tubing through. One "tail" I made long enough to hit the base of the jug (this one goes to the carboy) and the other was just in far enough to stay put.
I sanitized the jug and tubing, then ran the short tail to the carboy and the long tail off into a jar of sanitizer. The "short tail" goes all the way to the bottom of the jug, and the other end goes into the carboy (the picture looks backwards because I had to swap out stoppers to fit this carboy). The only purpose of the "long tail" is to burp CO2 without letting nasties into the yeast. This is essentially an extended airlock with a "catch chamber".
Here's a picture of the beast in action (it's not quite high krausen in the picture, but that was soon to come):
Here's a shot of the product- about a pint of thick slurry:
This was quick and painless... it's definitely easier than wrestling the carboy post-primary. I'll see how well the top-cropped yeast performs soon- I have another batch planned for it in a couple of weeks.
I was making an ESB with WLP023, and having heard good things about the yeast, planned to save some for another batch. Then I said to myself "Self, why don't we do this the way the Brits do, and get that delicious yeast before it spatters all over my walls and creation?" Thus the $2 top-cropper was born. Next step will be a water-jug Burton Union.
Yes, I could just rinse the yeast from the carboy, and I've done that several times to great success. The reasons I'm trying this are: it's easier both to collect and to separate trub and dead yeast, and it'll be more sanitary overall simply because there is less transferring back and forth of the yeast slurry.
I took a distilled water jug and three feet of tubing. I cut the tubing in half, cut two holes in the jug lid, and forced the tubing through. One "tail" I made long enough to hit the base of the jug (this one goes to the carboy) and the other was just in far enough to stay put.
I sanitized the jug and tubing, then ran the short tail to the carboy and the long tail off into a jar of sanitizer. The "short tail" goes all the way to the bottom of the jug, and the other end goes into the carboy (the picture looks backwards because I had to swap out stoppers to fit this carboy). The only purpose of the "long tail" is to burp CO2 without letting nasties into the yeast. This is essentially an extended airlock with a "catch chamber".
Here's a picture of the beast in action (it's not quite high krausen in the picture, but that was soon to come):
Here's a shot of the product- about a pint of thick slurry:
This was quick and painless... it's definitely easier than wrestling the carboy post-primary. I'll see how well the top-cropped yeast performs soon- I have another batch planned for it in a couple of weeks.